Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
Nurse Perspectives on Urinary Incontinence in the Home Hospice Setting.
To date, no studies have characterized the impacts of urinary incontinence (UI) at the end of life in the home hospice (HH) setting. UI is highly prevalent at the end of life and adversely affects quality of life. ⋯ UI is a prevalent and debilitating condition in HH patients. There is a need for studies to further characterize the impacts of UI on HH patients and their caregivers. Formal training on UI subtypes and management is needed to facilitate proper documentation, research, and improve patient outcomes.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
End-of-life care in the time of COVID-19: Communication matters more than ever.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in visitation restrictions across most health care settings, necessitating the use of remote communication to facilitate communication among families, patients and health care teams. ⋯ Effective remote communication with the patient and the health care team was associated with significantly better ratings of the overall experience of end-of-life care by bereaved family members. Our findings offer timely insights into the importance of remote communication strategies.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
Patterns of Specialty Palliative Care Utilization Among Patients Receiving Palliative Radiotherapy.
Palliative radiation therapy (RT) is frequently used to ameliorate cancer-associated symptoms and improve quality of life. ⋯ Fewer than half of patients receiving palliative RT utilized specialty PC. Initiatives are needed to increase PC, especially for patients with lung cancer and neurological symptoms, and to empower radiation oncologists to refer patients to specialty PC.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
The Development of Palliative Care in Colombia: An analysis of geographical inequalities through the application of international indicators.
The national evaluation of an individual country is a tool used to improve the universal provision of palliative care. The evaluation of a country's internal situation, by means of an analysis of the development of palliative care by region, may also be an instrument for improvement. ⋯ Regional palliative care development is unequal and unbalanced. Applying international indicators to levels of regional development allows for the identification of geographical inequalities and highlights low palliative care development, especially in the rural areas of the country.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
Multicenter Study Observational StudyHow successful is parenteral oxycodone for relieving terminal cancer dyspnea compared with morphine? A multicenter prospective observational study.
Parenteral morphine is widely used for dyspnea of imminently dying cancer patients (terminal dyspnea). However, the efficacy of other opioids such as oxycodone remains largely unknown. ⋯ Parenteral oxycodone may be equally effective and safe as morphine in the treatment of terminal dyspnea in cancer patients. Future randomized controlled trials should confirm the efficacy and safety of opioids other than morphine for terminal dyspnea.